An obscure comedian has managed to hijack the campaign of creepy Donald Trump in the final week of the election by giving a disgusting speech at the Nazi-style rally in Madison Square Garden. In his speech, he managed to insult Latinos in general and Puerto Ricans in particular.
Latinos “love making babies. There’s no pulling out. They come inside, just like they do to our country,” Hinchcliffe said to laughter inside the arena. He added: “There’s literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now. I think it’s called Puerto Rico.”
This was a bridge too far for even some Republicans, who generally have no problems with insulting people of color and minorities, because they realized that this could have serious blowback by undercutting their courting of the Hispanic vote and because of the large numbers of Puerto Ricans who live in the swing states.
His racist remarks drew swift rebuke from across the political spectrum, including from a pair of prominent congressional Republicans from Florida and New York. GOP Rep. María Elvira Salazar wrote on X that she was “disgusted” by his “racist” rhetoric that “does not reflect GOP values.” Sen. Rick Scott denounced the “joke” as “not funny” and “not true.” And Rep. Anthony D’Esposito (R-N.Y.) said on social media that “the only thing that’s ‘garbage’ was a bad comedy set.”
David Urban, a Republican strategist and Trump ally who is close to the campaign, posted to X, “I understand that his K*ll Tony podcast is wildly popular, but I thought he was unfunny and unfortunately offended many of our friends from Puerto Rico. #TrumpLovesPR.”
A spokesperson for creepy Trump tried to distance themselves from the remarks by saying that the remarks had not been vetted by the campaign. That seems unlikely and was undercut by other staffers saying that the speech had been seen by them and could have been even worse.
The lines sparked immediate backlash and even condemnation from fellow Republicans. But four top campaign sources said it could have been even worse.
“He had a joke calling [Vice President Kamala] Harris a ‘cunt,'” a campaign insider involved in the discussions about the event told The Bulwark. “Let’s say it was a red flag.”
…Campaign staffers had asked all speakers to submit drafts of their speeches ahead of time-before they were loaded into the teleprompter-according to the aforementioned sources. Once the objectionable “cunt” joke was spotted, the sources said, a staffer asked Hinchcliffe to strike it. He complied.
Those sources insisted that they did not spot the other objectionable lines in Hinchcliffe’s speech prior to him delivering it because they were ad-libbed. Hinchcliffe couldn’t be reached for comment.
…Behind the scenes, the Trump campaign debated how to respond. Some aides wanted a full-throated denunciation of Hinchcliffe while others, in accordance with MAGA’s no-apologies crowd on Twitter, advocated for no response at all.
“It’s a joke. People need to grow up,” one Trump adviser in the no-apology camp told The Bulwark. “This is what we’re campaigning against: PC culture run amok.”
Creepy Trump himself has not disavowed the remarks because of his firm belief that there is absolutely nothing that he can say or do that will cause his cult members to defect. But there. is something he can say that will really upset them.
Does not reflect the values of the GOP?? This is the foundation of the GOP.
I am inclined to sneer at the Puerto Ricans and Latinos who are suddenly all shocked by Trump saying the same thing he has been implying for a decade. What, are you stupid? The guy hates you. Always has. You sucked up to him for 8 years and now suddenly you find he’s insulting? Come on, you need vendetta’ing 101 lessons from us celts.
@2. I’m gonna be honest, this is mostly a vote as a demonstration of their devotion to the cult of Trump. Some try to say the economy but when shown proof that Trump is actually the worse candidate for that, they’ll deny it or pretend it’s not true. Most people voting for him are either part of the cult or very misinformed people who still can’t be bothered to learn more. For example, if anyone cared about Trump being an overall bigot and idiot, there would zero support from LGBT, Asian/Latino/POC, Muslim, Women, etc. Yet a significant portion, even if a minority, of these groups support him. He can literally tell any supporter who falls within these groups to go and die and they’ll support that message with gusto. Dems in comparison couldn’t get away with that and say racist stuff about southerners or evangelicals for example but still receive their votes anyway.
Wow, I haven’t heard the “they come inside” bit on any other media — just the “pile of garbage” bit. Still trying to sane-wash Republicans?
All these jokes show the entire GQP to be stupid on at least three levels. First, the jokes just plain aren’t funny, just mean, degrading and insulting. Second, they show that bashing and demonizing nonwhites is a basic part of Republican doctrine — otherwise why would they have hired a “comedian” well known for such “humor?” And third, the jokes are just plain childish, and show a party mired in childishness and unwilling/unable to even try to act like grownups. “I saw a big pile of garbage — it’s called your mom’s house!” is something I remember from junior-high and grade-school. It got old (for me and my friends at least) before I got old enough to vote.
And now an obscure POTUS has managed to do probably worse damage to the campaign of Harris. Why couldn’t that fucking numpty just keep his stupid trap shut? He shouldn’t have been saying anything on the night Harris was delivering her “closing argument”.
Biden stumbles over words, produces Trump-style semi-gibberish, is deceptively edited to make it sound like he said something rather different than he realistically would have meant, “NO U”.
In a sane world, this would be the exact opposite of a flex. Then again, in a sane world, we would not be holding the Republican Party to such low standards of behavior so that Trump (and a lot of other people) would never have been elected in the first place. That said, I don’t expect this bit of jackhattery to do much of anything one way or another.
I fear you are over-optimistic. Biden’s blunder was potentially very damaging in three ways:
1) It gives the fascists a way to change the narrative around the vile racism on display from the “comedian” at MSG.
2) It distracted from Harris’s “closing argument” speech. (Biden should not have been saying anything so close to that event, let alone something so easily misrepresented. He still has the delusion that he can help her defeat Trump, but the less voters are reminded of the link between them, the better.)
3) It called to mind Hilary Clinton’s “basket of deplorables” blunder, playing right into the fascists’ claim that “the liberal elite” hates and despises “ordinary Americans” (i.e. anyone who votes or has voted for Trump).
@KG #6: Potentially, yes, but I would be more concerned if they weren’t currently in the process of screwing up this opportunity big time.